


Light a Match

by Vagrant_Blvrd



Series: Kings of Nowhere [1]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe- GTA V, Gen, M/M, Pre-Fake AH Crew
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-12-10 12:00:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11691198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vagrant_Blvrd/pseuds/Vagrant_Blvrd
Summary: Everyone in Los Santos knows what the Vagabond's specialty is. If you want a problem taken care of, you go to him.





	Light a Match

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt fill for Anonymous on Tumblr, who wanted Freewood and #35 off [this post](https://vagrantblvrd.tumblr.com/post/163432062356/prompt-list)

“I want this little fucker dead. He's fucked up too many of my operations.”

Ryan tilts his head, and the crime-lord-in-training tosses a folder on the table between them. 

“This is what my people have been able to find on him. Hope it helps.”

There's a sneer in there, even though the bastard's expression is ever so pleasant and polite.

Ryan doesn't like Santiago. A man with a reputation for unnecessary cruelty and who gained too much power too quickly. Let it all go to his head, and now he thinks he can get away with anything. Push just anyone around and not worry about the consequences, and that's a mistake here in Los Santos. Gotten more than a few people like him dead over the years.

Still, he's too powerful to just blow off like the street thug he still is under it all. Young and reckless, but not stupid, really. Just a certain kind of clever that knows how to leverage the backing he has from some very influential figures in Los Santos. So it pays to play this little game with him. Put in an appearance, meet him face-to-face to show there's some little (very little) respect for Santiago in the Vagabond. Enough that he won't see him as a threat.

Ryan picks up the folder – suspiciously thin – and opens it to reveal a few sheets of paper. 

All of them blank, and Ryan holds back a sigh as he looks up at Santiago, whose smile looks more like a smirk now. Resentful like so many others like him in this city at the way the Vagabond wont come to heel for him, but too much of a coward to do anything about it himself.

Ryan opens his mouth to refuse the contract, but before he can there's a knock on the door and a moment later one of the guy's men walks in. He's carrying a small box, holding it away from him like he wants no part of it. Would rather be anywhere but where he is.

”Boss, you uh. You got a present?”

Santiago turns to look at his minion, polite mask slipping a little more as he bares his teeth at the interruption. Eyes narrowing as they land on the box, sees the shipping label from a local delivery service. Santiago grabs the box from his minion and rips it open, and glares down at its contents. Snarling incoherently as he hurls the box at the nearest wall with all his strength.

“I'll pay you three times your normal price, as long as you get rid of him," Santiago growls, nostrils flaring as he turns to Ryan. _Breathes_ , eyes going to the box, hands curled into fists. “Four times your normal price.”

Ryan looks at the box, heart sinking as he recognizes the calling card that had fallen out of the box when Santiago threw it. Vibrant colors and a pixelated face with a jester's cap set at a jaunty angle and _goddammit_.

========

Ryan tracks the hacker to a quaint little apartment on the lower side of the city. Great view of the city skyline and east-facing windows. Balcony that's seen better days, and a little community garden a block down in what used to be an empty lot. Cozy little place to call home, and wonder of wonders, his target's right where he wants him.

Ryan reaches out and pulls the chair out, tipping it back so the little shit will see the face of the man who's going to kill him, see if Ryan doesn't.

There's a panicked squawk, and Ryan leans back with easy familiarity to avoid the flailing hands and flying headset as Gavin fails to demonstrate even the basics of what Ryan's drilled into that thick skull of his.

“Ryan! What – You nearly gave me a heart attack, you bastard!”

Ryan's mouth pulls up into what some people might call a smile as he brings his face close to Gavin's and says, “Oh, really? I didn't realize. How rude of me.”

And because Gavin's a bright one, he realizes Ryan's not thrilled with him. Eyes widening before they flit to his setup and the screens showing all kinds of files and security camera footage and – goddammit, footage from some of Gavin's own little cameras placed in strategic spots. Santiago's office isn't one of them, but Ryan's betting that's more due to a lack of opportunity than lack of forethought.

“Ah - “

“You'll never guess what Santiago wanted to meet with me about,” Ryan says, like this is any other day. 

Like this is him filling Gavin in on one of his jobs so he'll know better than to let whatever game he's playing at the moment come into conflict with Ryan's work, because that's how they avoid horrible disasters. 

“Ryan - “

“No, really, Gavin. You'll never guess.”

One of Gavin's hands reaches up to snag on Ryan's shirt. If this really was any other day Ryan would think it's him about to pull him down for a welcome home kiss, but this isn't any other day, is it.

And for all the shit he pulls, Gavin's a bright one. Knows Ryan's just as likely to tip Gavin out of his computer chair as anything else right now. Has considered his options and is determined that if Ryan's going to do it, then by God Gavin will take him down with him in the process. 

Pyrrhic victory, or whatever the hell that would be.

Ryan's still tempted to do it, knock some of the smug arrogance out of Gavin from all the shit he pulls on a daily basis. So convinced he's good enough to remain anonymous, that no one will ever find him and already forgetting that it's happened before. That that's how they got into this situation in the first place. This stupidly cozy little apartment in a nice neighborhood, and fresh vegetables and fruit from that community garden a block down.

But - 

“He offered me seven times my normal price to kill you, you idiot,” Ryan says, and forces himself to loosen his grip on Gavin's chair, hands aching because Santiago had upped the amount every time Ryan refused until he realized he was getting nowhere. “ _Seven times_ , Gavin.”

That's a hell of a lot of money, and at the moment so very tempting because _Gavin_.

Gavin blinks up at him and licks his lips. Eyes darting to the side for a moment while he thinks. 

And thinks and thinks and thinks.

After all of that, Gavin thinking and thinking and _thinking_ , he looks up at Ryan and says - like this is some kind of _joke_ \- “Well this is awkward.”

========

Ryan decides the risk is more than worth it and goes for it. Just fucking tips Gavin out of his damn chair. Feels Gavin clamp down hard and _pull_ , and then they're involved in an impromptu wrestling match that Ryan winds handily enough. Pins Gavin with an arm behind his back and holds him there with a light touch that serves as a warning more than anything as he sits back on his heels to catch his breath. (Gavin's wily, and stubborn and agile as all hell. Puts up a good fight when he means to.)

“What the hell have you been doing?” Ryan asks, at a loss because he'd thought Gavin was doing his usual jobs.

Easy little hacking gigs for the criminally minded around the city. People who have no idea what the face behind that ridiculous calling card of his looks like. Who has no idea the hacker they've hired goes by at least a dozen different names depending on his mood and has absolutely no common sense to him at all.

“You remember that bloke that contacted me last week? ” Gavin says head turned to the side to look up at Ryan. “He hired me.”

Ryan frowns, releasing his holding Gavin's arm immediately when he pulls against it, and leans back as Gavin pulls himself up into a sitting position facing him.

“I though you said you weren't interested?”

Gavin gets job offers all the time sent to him through fake accounts and proxies and enough bullshit in there that he's managed remain (mostly) anonymous for years. Worked his magic from behind the scenes, and let Los Santos tear itself apart and rebuild from the ground up again and again and again.

A week ago he'd gotten an offer from someone new to the city. Someone who had done their homework to even get through to Gavin, but too much of an unknown for Gavin to risk unbalancing the delicate equilibrium Los Santos has finally achieved. 

Gavin shrugs, gaze flittering away from Ryan's as he starts picking at the carpet. 

“He was convincing,” Gavin says, little bit of a grimace to it when he looks back at Ryan. “Told me to see what Santiago's involved with, see if I wouldn't want to work for him after that.”

Ryan rubs his eyes, and when he lowers his hand sees Gavin looking at him steadily, chin lifted. Stubborn and defiant and this little sliver of uncertainty in his eyes. Ryan sighs, and feels an overwhelming rush of affection for Gavin.

“...Us,” Ryan says, after a moment, because like hell is he going to let Gavin get dragged into a little war with someone like Santiago alone because some upstart thinks he has what it takes to take him down. 

There's this pause. 

Odd. Funny, even, as Gavin goes so very, very still. 

“Gavin?”

Gavin laughs, loud and awkward and deliberately not making eye contact.

“Gavin.”

“Funny you should say that,” Gavin says, mouth twisting up into a strange little smile when he glances at Ryan. “You should probably check your e-mail more often, Ryan.”

========

There's an job offer, in Ryan's e-mail. 

Unknown sender, typical enough message, but it's the signature the end that gets him. Something he hasn't really seen anyone use outside of internet forums because people old enough to remember got it out of their systems back when GeoCities was a thing. 

It's a little image of a rubber duck in the crosshairs that looks like it's been stenciled onto a black background.

“The fuck,” Ryan says, looking at Gavin who's barely containing his amusement at Ryan's reaction.

Gavin shrugs, and says, “Seem interesting, don't they?”

Ryan looks back at his laptop and reads the e-mail again. Polite and to the point and careful the way so many aren't when they go looking to hire the Vagabond, and that damn rubber duck to cap it all off. 

And then there's Gavin, who's a bright one for all the shit he pulls and has decided that this newcomer to Los Santos is interesting enough to risk unbalancing things in the city again. Thinks he might have what it takes to knock people like Santiago out of power when it comes to running this city.

“Well,” Ryan says, hoping they won't end up regretting this one day, “that's definitely one way to put it.”


End file.
